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Your best, although still slim, prospects for any kind of entry-level IT jobs in that region will be found in the Hartford-Springfield belt along I-91. The main (practically only) industries around Northampton and Amherst are education, tourism, and entertainment. Put yourself and your resume out there on Web sites like Hotjobs, Monster.com, etc and see what happens. The main concentration of computer-related companies in Massachusetts is still along Route 128 a few miles in either direction from the Mass. Pike (I-90), but the Tech Belt - if you will - now extends westward all the way to Worcester along the Pike and Route 9.
I lived in Northampton for two years and found it to be vastly overrated. Unlike NYC, it's a nice place to visit but you *really* don't want to live there. Pretensions are everywhere you look and there's a small-town attitude to go with the population of maybe 30,000. Within a month your name would be known to half of the bi/lesbian women there and your business known by most of them. Once you've established a social circle none of that should matter much. A lot of it depends upon your personal styles and whether you're from an urban or suburban/rural upbringing.
Maynard has quietly developed a good reputation as a BLGT-friendly town. When Digital ruled the high-tech world in bygone days it was headquartered there. A good number of its same-sex-inclined personnel put down roots in the area and stayed put when DEC went under. The housing is affordable in comparison to surrounding communities like Acton and Stow, and it feels like a small town in positive ways (amiable neighbors, commercial district with mainstays like a movie theater and Chinese take-out, safe streets.) Sociologically speaking, Maynard has a predominantly blue-collar and "tolerant" tone to it. The towns nearby, while mainly more affluent, also have a live-and-let-live reputation. (Marlborough, for instance, has an "out" gay elected official.) For more extensive occupational prospects, if I were you I'd set my sights on the "Metro West" part of Mass. Come to think of it, none other than the aforementioned Monster.com operates out of Maynard - they themselves might be hiring!
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